The Executive Yuan held a news conference yesterday to address protests by farmers and other criticism of a Ministry of Economic Affairs decision to leave thousands of hectares of fields fallow in an effort to fight drought.
The ministry on Thursday said it would cease agricultural water services in Greater Taoyuan, Hsinchu County and the areas covered by the Chianan Irrigation Association (嘉南水利會).
A drought in the latter half of the year and insufficient water storage at most major reservoirs spurred the move, the Council of Agriculture said.
“[The move] is to guarantee water supplies for the public’s daily use and industrial uses in the first half of next year,” it said.
Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) as well as Miaoli County Commissioner Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) criticized the plan.
Chang said the decision was forced upon Chiayi County without taking farmers’ rights into account and that it accented how the central government has long overlooked “water supply justice.”
Hsu called for negotiations among different departments to solve the problem of different sectors competing for water.
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉), who now owns a bookstore and works as a farmer, on Thursday posted an article on Facebook described as about the farmers’ predicament under the policy.
The post had garnered more than 10,000 shares and almost 6,000 likes as of yesterday.
Luo said that farmers whose livelihoods depend upon their fields would lose income for at least eight months next year.
“The government offers one-time subsidies for the land: NT$85,000 for [a little less than one hectare or about 9,700m2]. And even this small amount of money could be taken by the landowners rather than the farmers who are really doing the farm work,” Luo said.
Water Resource Agency Deputy Director-General Tien Chiao-ling (田巧玲) said that local government representatives were invited to meetings about the scheduled water-supply cessation and asked to pass the latest information on to their respective counties.
“The decision was made following sufficient discussion among the ministries and representatives,” Tien said.
Council Deputy Minister Chen Wen-te (陳文德) said that the subsidies are for the farmers rather than landowners.
“There was no dispute about this last time, when the measure was implemented in 2010 due to a drought,” Chen added.
He also said that farmers who face exploitation could file complaints with the Agriculture and Food Agency.
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